​Approximately 3,000 years before Sir William Wallace fought for Scottish freedom from the English oppressors and Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, which gave the American people freedom from their British overlords, the Hebrew people were suffering under bondage in Egypt.
Oh, how they yearned for their freedom.
God sent them a shepherd named Moses, who demanded of the Pharaoh, "Let my people go!"
Even though Pharaoh initially refused, God prevailed and delivered his people from captivity.
 
But, heaven forbid, nearly 1,000 years after Moses, God’s people were again being oppressed - both by the tyranny of the Roman Empire and by the powers and principalities of the world.
This time, God sent his son, Jesus, to live in the world and to show them how to be free again, but in a different way.
 
In his inaugural sermon, Jesus announced that he had been anointed by the Holy Spirit "to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free."
This same liberating Jesus would later say to his followers, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. . .so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
 
Therefore, we see that freedom is an idea that emanates from the very heart of God.
In the beginning, when God created humankind, he could easily have made us like puppets, so that whenever he wanted us to do something, he could just pull a string and we’d have to do it.
But what kind of relationship would that be?
Instead, God created humans with the capacity and the responsibility to act as free moral agents.
The desire for freedom isn’t simply a function of the human spirit, its source is the free will of the Living God.
 
There are more than fifty references to freedom in the New Testament, each of them exploring a different dimension of what Paul calls, in his letter to the Romans, "the glorious liberty of the children of God."
In his letter to the Galatians, there is a less-than-glorious atmosphere surrounding the subject of freedom.
It seems as if the church in Galatia had divided into two opposing camps.
There were those who believed that freedom meant license to do whatever they pleased - and those who were entrenched in the Jewish way of things.
In the First Century, there was a small group of Jews who were known as the Gnostics, who believed that the human spirit was free from matter and flesh.
Their belief was that whatever you did during the time you were alive, was of little consequence in the afterlife.
Therefore, they reasoned, you may as well do whatever you please with your body while on earth, because your soul will still be pure and, consequently, you’ll be ok when you get to heaven.
Responding to these words, Paul said "Don’t use your freedom for self-indulgence, but through love, become slaves of one another, for the whole law is summed up in this single commandment: Love your neighbour as yourself."
 
The other camp in the Galatian church was made up of those who thought it imperative to adhere to all the requirements of Jewish religious rituals, including dietary restrictions and male circumcision.
That crowd would have said that freedom in Christ was all well and good, but that they felt much more secure remaining inside the old prison of the hundreds of regulations that characterised the Mosaic (Jewish) law.
 
Paul was passionately convinced that observing the rituals, or not observing them, really was actually of no consequence, because "The only thing that counts is faith, working through love."
 
To be free really means to be liberated from the prison of "I, myself, and me".
To be truly free, is to be able to move beyond the self and to move into the risk of love and to give yourself to the demands of service, free for responsibility, not from responsibility.
 
Think of how Jesus, who could have had everything - power, status, safety – should he want it, instead chose to empty himself and take on the role of a servant – all for the sake of the world.
Now that’s true freedom.
 
Think of how God made us as one human family, irrevocably bound to one another in his heart and mind - from the very beginning - so that we are, by nature, inclined towards loving one another.
By the will of God, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, freedom and responsibility belong together in our lives and in the life of our congregation.
 
The same is true, I believe, for our nation.
One of Australia's greatest gifts to its people, is the concept of religious freedom.
Governments don’t impose religion on anyone, and all our citizens are free to practice religion, or not, according to their own wishes.
 
But that doesn’t mean that people of faith don’t have a crucial role to play in the life of our nation.
We ought to be working every day to create a society that’s marked by concern for the common good.
We ought to be listening for the voices of those who aren’t being heard.
We ought to be speaking out against excessive self-indulgences and greed.
 
I believe that we’re called to be a servant people, bringing good news to the oppressed, modelling justice and  proclaiming liberty to the captives.
Can you even think of a time that calls out more for moral leadership, than in these troubled days?
What an opportunity we have, what a responsibility we have - to repair, to raise up, to build up, to offer hope for all those who suffer in our midst and beyond our shores.
 
Sisters and brothers in Christ, may our pledge today be to build that kingdom, here on earth, just as it is in heaven.
And the Good News is that, through Christ, we’ve been set free to do all these things!
And we’re free from having to work out how to achieve our own salvation!
We’re free from what binds us!
We’re free from the past - from our fears and our anxieties.
Freedom is ours! And we’re saved and empowered!


Paul reminded the Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 
If we live by the Spirit, then we are also guided by the Spirit.

We’re free and now we need to exercise our freedom to love and serve one another unconditionally.
We’re liberated to love.

So what’s stopping us from exercising the freedom we have?


Maybe we feel that to love means to miss out ourselves, however it’s not a game of pluses and minuses.
To love others doesn’t necessarily result in less love for ourselves.

Maybe another reason that we recoil from our freedom, is that it comes with responsibilities.
We have the freedom to choose, but are we afraid of the choices we’ll have to make?
Is it easier to rely on rulebooks and authorities to tell us what to do, as the early Jews did?


Obviously, at a material level, to love and to give of our time, money and possessions, results in us not keeping these things just for ourselves.
However, at a spiritual, non-materialistic level (which is what ultimately matters), to share and to love, results in our lives becoming richer, more rewarding and more meaningful.

I pray that you will all dwell richly in God, claim your freedom and live a life fully of love.
 
Pastor Rick

In the 3rd Chapter of Galatians, we encounter a dramatic shift of focus.
Up until now, Paul has been talking in the first-person plural ("we"), when describing the past experience of the Jewish people, who were, in his words, "locked up" under the Jewish laws.
Now he turns to the privileged position of the Galatian Christians who are all united in Christ (you are all . . . all of you . . . you are all),
Union with Christ is the main emphasis of each verse:  “faith in Christ Jesus (v. 26), baptized into Christ, clothed with Christ (v. 27), one in Christ Jesus (v. 28), belonging to Christ (v. 29).”
 
This sharp contrast between the negatives under the system of Mosaic law and the positive privileges of union with Christ, reinforces Paul's rebuke for their foolishness at the beginning of the chapter.
In the old set of relationships, under the law, Jews thought of themselves as the children of God and that the Gentiles were sinners.
But now Paul tells them that Gentile Christians are: “all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
This must have been a shocking declaration for a Jew to hear.
In Jewish literature, “sons of God” was a title of highest honour, used only for the members of the righteous tribes. But now Gentiles - the rejected, the outsiders, the sinners, those who do not observe the law – are also called “sons of God.”   How could a Gentile ever be called a child of God?
Paul's answer is clear – “through faith in Christ Jesus (v. 26)”
 
So, we now see that all who believe in Christ are equals.
 
Did you know that until about seventy or eighty years ago, in some churches, men sat on one side and women sat on the other?   Why? 
Perhaps this was an established rule, and no one was game to question it.
It probably sounded like a good deal for men - not having to care for a pew full of active children.
Mums got to do all that themselves - things were different in those days.
We now understand the folly of those rules.
But are there still things which divide us from other Christians?
 
One of the deepest concerns on the heart of Jesus, on the night he instituted the Lord's Supper in the Upper Room, was the unity of his followers.
In John 13:35 we read "...everyone will know that you are my disciples, If you have love for one another."
Not once, but three times that evening he commanded his disciples to, "...love one another...."
 
It’s not just that mutual love and unity in the church is a nice thing, it’s an absolutely essential thing for the witness of the church in the world.
 
In writing to the fledgling church in Galatia, Paul declares that when we are incorporated into Christ through baptism, all distinctions between us have been removed.
"There is no longer Jew or Greek," Paul says, "There is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female..."
 
Why do you think he says that?        
It’s because "all of you are one in Christ Jesus!"
 
What do you think Paul would say if he came back today and saw somewhere in the neighbourhood of 6,000 competing groups on this planet - all claiming the name of Christ? 
Ok - many groups work together and acknowledge each other's legitimacy as Christian churches, but the fact is that there are hundreds of groups, including "fringe groups" that claim to be the "one true church."
And there are millions of individuals who feel that their church is the only "true" church.
 
What must this be doing to the heart of Christ?
 
As the unity of Jesus with his father was the foundation of the gospel call - so too the message of reconciliation with God rests on the unity of the Body of Christ – the church.
Today’s unbelieving world has no way to see the reality of the good news if the witness of Christ’s church is buried in the rubble of division and disunity.
 
What an awesome responsibility has been given to us as members of the church of Christ.
Our unity is not for your sake, or my sake, or for the sake of a jolly fellowship, where a good time is had by all.
 
No - our unity in Christ is a command by Christ that we must obey and a passion of Christ's that we need to embrace.
 
It probably wouldn’t be a stretch to label this call of Christ "Mission Impossible." 
It seems most unlikely that the church will get to a point where it has the kind of unity that Jesus commanded and prayed about so often.
History is filled with the divisions of Christianity and with the horror of persecution, burnings at the stake, hangings, executions and holy wars – and all in the name of Christ.
 
Thanks be to God that Christianity is pretty much done with the burning and hanging of heretics (although there is still some ugly religious persecution going on in our world) - but there is a long way to go before we might see the "Oneness in Christ" that Paul wrote about.
The reading from Galatians will help us to get a handle on the meaning of this "Oneness in Christ."
 
We need to be clear that the "oneness" Paul writes about here is not a simple kind of unity where everyone cooperates and "gets along."
It’s not to say that this kind of unity is a bad thing - mutual respect among people of different races, classes, cultures and religions is an absolutely admirable cause to work for.
If the human race could just get together on a decision agreeing that there would never again be a "Holy War," most Christians would fall on their knees and give thanks and glory to God.
 
But - this is not the type of unity Paul is speaking about in our reading.
His words, "...for all of you are one in Christ Jesus..." are addressed to a Christian people whose church was in danger of being torn apart and Paul addresses that danger by speaking about the foundation, the reality and the future of Christian Unity.
 
The importance of God's call to us today is highlighted in the comment that was made a few years ago by an unchurched, non-believing man.
"Don't tell me I need to believe in Jesus, when all of you who claim to be Christians don't even like each other!"
He had a kind of a "Who needs it?" view of church and the people who attend.
 
After examining it in prayer, I encourage you to do what you feel in your heart is correct and hold dear what you believe God has called you to be faithful to.
Celebrate the faith in whatever way brings you closer to God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Debate the important things of your faith with sisters and brothers whenever the occasion demands it.
 
But - for God's sake - when it comes time to turn your faith and witness to the world around us, give up your prejudices and lower your barriers in order that you might proclaim to the world the fact that we are:
"One in Christ Jesus!"
Pastor Rick
 
“Go into this week knowing that you have a home in God.
Wherever you go, God welcomes you.
Whomever you are, God calls to you.
Whatever you seek, God reveals it to you.
No matter your journey, in God you find a home.
We are a faith-filled people and our Creator, Sustainer and Wisdom God goes with us now and always.”    
Amen

​Our human minds are truly amazing things, but they can be quite limited and finite at times.
For example, they can’t possibly know all there is to know about the infinite and unlimited - things like  “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.”
 
Over the centuries many books have been written on the deepest mystery of the Christian faith - the Holy Trinity.
Yet, when all is done and dusted, it still remains one of the deepest mysteries of theology.
 
I can’t find anywhere where Jesus talks directly about the Trinity and neither did those great writers Paul and John.
Yes, they mention all three elements individually, but not as a linked body.
In various passages, we read of God who is the Father and Creator, God who the Son and Saviour (ie. Jesus) and God who is the Holy Spirit or Comforter, but we never read that they are the one body.
 
It wasn't until the fourth century, some 300 years after the life of Jesus, that Christian leaders formalized the idea of the Trinity at the Council of Nicaea in 325.
Out of that council we got the Nicene Creed, which we occasionally recite.
In that creed, the three into one are inextricably linked.  
Later, in the fifth century, some Christian leaders wrote another creed, trying once again to clarify the Trinity for us, particularly the role of Jesus – and that Council gave us the Apostles' Creed.
 
The Trinity reveals the creative, the ethical, and the mystical.
The essence of God is creative - that's what God does, God creates - everything.
And the actions of Jesus when he was on earth, were good; God sent Jesus to show us the best way to live our lives; that's ethics.
And the mystical?
Well, the mystical is all that Spirit stuff, like: “prayer, meditation, being fully present with God.”
 
So we see that there are not 3 separate identities, but, in fact, 3 corners of a single triangle.
 
Sometimes we speak of God as the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.
 
In Psalm 8, we have a picture of God the Creator, who is our Sovereign, our King and Ruler.
He’s not the same as creation - rather, he is set above the heavens and rules the whole universe, which he created by speaking it into existence through his word.
We say that God is all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), and all-present (omnipresent).
 
In standing before this Creator God - the psalmist is aware that we human beings are small and finite creatures.
I think that we can identify with the psalmist’s feeling of smallness in comparison with the vastness of the universe.
We might feel small beside an ocean; or on a mountain-top; or in the desert, looking to the far horizon.  
Or, on a hot summer’s night, when the sky is clear, and we stretch out on the grass and gaze up at the stars.
All of these experiences of God’s creation give us a sense of our smallness.
 
But the psalmist doesn’t end there, rather, the Psalm goes into a hymn of praise to God the Creator for creating human beings “a little lower than God”, but also in God’s image, so we’re given a privileged and very responsible role as stewards of God’s creation.
Our connection with God the Creator is in caring for his creation and all of the various life-forms within the creation.
 
Sadly, some people have interpreted the words “dominion over”, as permission to exploit and even abuse God’s creation to such an extent that many species have either become extinct or are in danger of extinction.
In short, we haven’t always been responsible, caring stewards of God’s creation.
Our highly technological and urbanized world doesn’t help us in this respect either - since the more urban and technological our lifestyle becomes; the more we seem to lose our connection with God’s creation.
That’s why some folk today endeavour to live more simply, so that others may simply live.
There are people who grow organic foods and try to limit their diet to food products that are native to their geographical region rather than import mass produced foods from all over the world.
Or avoid ones which contain harmful additives and preservatives, or ones that are produced by workers who are paid very poorly.
 
As responsible stewards of God’s creation, many people are trying to rely more on alternative, environmentally-friendly energy sources such as wind and solar.
These, and other environmentally conscious options, seem to be in harmony with God’s creation and our roles as responsible, caring stewards of his creation.
 
Looking at today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks of God the Holy Trinity in a rather interesting way.
Jesus speaks of the unity, the oneness of God in three persons, when he says: “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he (i.e. the Holy Spirit) will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
 
There have been different attempts at explaining this unity, the oneness of the three persons of the Trinity.
One of the interesting aspects of the words of Jesus, concerning the Holy Spirit, is that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and in this role, the Spirit functions as God’s completely accurate communications expert.
 
The message the Spirit receives from God, the Father and Son, is communicated exactly as it would be had it come from the other two persons of the Trinity.
It doesn’t get lost in translation, as messages do in the “Chinese whispers” scenario.
 
So, we can trust the reliability and accuracy of God the Spirit to reveal the truth concerning the Holy Trinity.
In a world full of sin and sinners, the truth often gets distorted beyond recognition.
We can trust in our Triune God who, thanks to the Spirit, reveals the truth to us through God’s word.
 
The central truth about “God in three persons, blessed Trinity” is that the Spirit gives us the faith to believe the words of Jesus, who says that he is God come down from heaven to be a human being.
That is our clearest picture of God.
In communication between us humans, we’re most likely to trust and believe someone who is like us and can understand and accept us - someone with whom we have a lot in common, who speaks our language and who shares in our experiences.
 
God loves you, me and the whole human race so much that he became like one of us - in the human flesh and blood person we call Jesus of Nazareth.
All we need to know and believe about God the Holy Trinity has been revealed to us through Jesus, who shared in our humanness in every way, except for one very important way - that he was without sin.
For that, thanks be to God!
 
After Jesus had been killed, resurrected and appeared to his followers, it was time for him to return to heaven.
But he made an amazing promise before he left. 
He promised that we would not be left alone, but that a “comforter” would always be with us.
We now know the comforter as the Holy Spirit and it can achieve mighty results. It assists us in our missional quest to spread the good news far and wide, by being with us in our daily lives, helping us to know what to say to others.
 
So, whether we have the advanced cognitive capacity to totally understand the reason that God decided that it would be best to appear to us in 3 distinct forms, we can be sure that he is always with us and that he loves us for all eternity.
 
This is a very comforting and reassuring truth and one that we can take forward into our coming days.
 
Glory be to God……………………Pastor Rick

Do you remember the line “God in three persons, blessed Trinity” from the old hymn?
The trinity’s an interesting theological construct and one that’s had scholars in discussion for thousands of years.
This week, we’re going to focus on one of the aspects of God - and that’s the Holy Spirit.
 
Imagine how you’d feel if you were attending a multi-cultural meeting where a bunch of uneducated people, who weren’t from your city, started speaking knowledgeably and logically about God – and in languages that all people who heard them (from at least 15 different language groups), could understand in their native tongue?
 
All this after hearing a mighty rushing wind and seeing tongues of fire descend and land on each of their heads. There would have been about 120 believers at that time, so it must have been quite a sight.
I don’t know about you, but I think it’d freak me out if I was there.
 
And that’s exactly what happened at the Jewish Harvest Festival, or Shavuot, which in orthodox Jewish tradition commemorated the giving of the 10 Commandments to Moses at Mt Sinai, 50 days after their exodus from Egypt.
That festival is known today as Pentecost, from a Greek word for “the 50th day”.
It’s the 50th day (or 7 weeks) after the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
The day of Pentecost is often seen as the “day the church began”, as it’s the first occurrence of baptism by the Holy Spirit and, therefore, points us to the inauguration of the Christian church.
 
Interestingly, Acts 2:1-4 doesn’t actually state that Spirit baptism took place at Pentecost.
It actually says that they were “filled” with the Holy Spirit, however, Acts 1:5 gives us the anticipation that it will occur (“for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”) and later in Acts 11:15-16 it refers back to it as having occurred on that day, at Pentecost.
The church, therefore, came into existence on that day and the believers were baptized into one body – which we now call “the church”.
 
We’re at a point where the disciples now seem to have re-found their courage and are speaking out boldly.
Only 7 weeks earlier, at Easter, they’d scattered and hid for fear of their lives. Even after Jesus had re-appeared to them, many times, after his resurrection, they were still reluctant to speak in public. 
It must have been a very confusing time for them. 
On the one hand, they were grieving because their master and teacher had been killed and taken away from them, so that part of their life, which must have been a great experience and adventure for them, was over.
But on the other hand, they were about to embark on a thrilling new task for God - taking the gospel to the rest of the world.
 
I guess it could be likened to taking a child to school for the first time.
Excitement is tinged with sadness.
One part of their life is over (i.e. growing up at home, with day to day bonding between parent & child), but a whole new world of education and new friendships, is opening up before them.
They may not fully understand it, but they know that something good, new and exciting, is about to happen. Likewise, it can be a time of big change for the parent, a tinge of loneliness and having to “let go”, mixed with the excitement of knowing that they are preparing their child for the time when they will leave home and commence a life - where they must look after themselves.
 
Compare that to the disciples being with Jesus for 3 years and then experiencing his death & resurrection and the 40 days of teaching and learning, before his ascension.
They now seem to be on their own, but (as promised) Jesus sends the Holy Spirit (comforter) to them.
 
It was only after being baptised by the Holy Spirit, that they had the courage to speak out in front of their peers.
 
The report that “3,000 were added to their number” indicates that they must have been impressive when they spoke and obviously made sense to those who heard them (and it was even in their own languages). 
 
And then Peter addressed the crowd, for the first time preaching publicly about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
This is the same Peter who was so scared that he had denied even knowing Jesus only 7 weeks earlier.
What was different?  It was obviously the Holy Spirit that gave him the ability to speak so eloquently and boldly.
 
He started off explaining to the crowd what had just happened and he defended the other 11 disciples against accusations of drunkenness that were being made by the crowd, pointing out that it was only 9am and they couldn’t possible have had too much wine. On a festival day, such as this, they wouldn’t have broken their fast before 10am.
 
Instead, he postulated that what the people were witnessing was a fulfilling of the words of prophesy, spoken by the prophet Joel, when he said that, in the last days, God would pour out his spirit on all people and that miraculous things would happen. 
The message of Joel can be summarized in three simple statements:
​
(1) Calamities are God’s warning of judgment to come.
(2) Heed these warnings, and return to God with all your heart.
(3) When you return to God, God’s fullest blessings will be poured out on you and on all people.

Of course, Joel was talking to the people of Judah, some 860 years before Peter quoted him, but the message was the same:
You may have done nasty things to God’s son, Jesus, but God is still willing to forgive you and bless you, if you accept his message and are baptised.
 
In the subsequent verses of Acts 2 (verses 22-40), Peter spells out how Jesus is the messiah that they’d been waiting for, how he’d fulfilled David’s prophesies, even about dying and being resurrected.
Not even King David, in all his greatness, had been able to achieve that feat.
 
Peter told them about how Jesus had brought the gift of the Holy Spirit to them and that they could receive it if they repented of their sins.
 
Surely this should be the basis of every evangelist’s message today.
We can only read in amazement and wonder as Luke tells us how even Peter, the one who ran away on the night Jesus was arrested, can be so convincing that 3,000 people believed on that day and were converted.
 
As long the early disciples sat and meditated and prayed behind locked doors, they remained defeated and downcast, but when they ventured out to share the Gospel, the Good News, they found the gift of the Spirit of God in life-changing ways.  
 
Is it an exciting thing we can participate in?        
Certainly.  

Are we given a peace within?        
Absolutely - even if all around is turmoil.

Can every Christian receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?      
Definitely - as long as we actually follow Jesus in his mission.  

Can we predict where the wind of the spirit will blow us?          
No way.
 
What we can also do is be as brave as the disciples were, when we’re talking to friends and acquaintances in the coming days, weeks and months.
We probably won’t find that an easy thing to do, but these words from Acts give us hope that God can use even people like us to do his work in the world today.
 
We can be reassured that the Holy Spirit will make our words understandable to those we talk with, just as he did those thousands of years ago.
 
If we plant the seed, God will ensure that it grows and bears much fruit.
 
Therefore, don’t be shy about talking to those who may not already have God in their heart, give it a go and the Kingdom will surely grow. We know that from a little mustard seed, a great tree will blossom.
 
I pray that you will go out and be brave, because the Spirit of God is with you.               

Pastor Rick